Dear Synod Community
A number of you have contacted the Synod regarding a suspicious email that you received from “Nancy Talbot”. That email coming from NTalbot.synodne@gmail.com is not from your Stated Clerk, it is a fake email phishing scam. We have taken the appropriate precautions on our end and urge you not to respond to the email, but to instead report it to your email provider as spam/ junk /or scam and delete it from your account.
Phishing scams are designed to trick people into handing over usernames and passwords, which can be used to access protected data, networks, and systems.
There are, however, ways you can detect a scam when it arrives in your inbox.
You can hover over any hyperlinks in the email to see the actual hyperlinked address, which may not match. In our case the email said it was from “The Rev Nancy Talbot” but the email address was com but actually linked to a fake address like NTalbot.synodne@gmail.com.
Emails that contain lots of spelling and grammar mistakes should raise alarm bells. You should, however, be aware that scammers can clone existing emails – which would look identical to professional and authentic emails.
For more information on protecting yourself against phishing scams please check out this link to FTC’s page on recognizing phishing scams.
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams#recognize
Grace and Peace,
Lori Hylton
Administrative Coordinator